Over 30 million individual units of the three main blood components—red blood cells (RBCs), platelet concentrate (PC), and plasma—are transfused in the U.S. every year. Nearly 70% of all whole blood (WB) donated in the U.S. is collected on mobile blood drives, often more than 100 miles away from the centralized blood banking facilities. Because of the significant differences in optimal storage conditions (1-6° C. for RBCs, 22±2° C. for platelets, −18° C. for plasma), WB should be quickly separated. The centrifugation-based equipment currently used to process WB into blood components may be undesirably expensive, bulky, laborious, and energy-intensive, especially for mobile blood collection coaches.
Further, high-speed centrifugation for WB separation may subject blood cells to damaging physical forces, may require two stages of centrifugation to separate WB into packed RBCs and platelet-rich plasma (PRP), followed by PRP into PC and platelet-poor plasma (PPP).
The present application appreciates that separation of whole blood may be a challenging endeavor.